Travel

Travel Insider: DJ Alex Merrell

Travel

Travel Insider: DJ Alex Merrell

When Cartier, Mercedes-Benz or W Hotels (among others) need to set the right vibe at a glam occasion, they call DJ Alex Merrell. Playing these gigs has taken the New York-based Vancouver native to places like St. Barts and Morocco – and since she travels over 200,000 kilometres a year, she’s more likely to run into friends abroad. “My biggest frustration has been missing people by not knowing they were in town!” she says. That’s why she’s launching TREC this spring, an iPhone app for frequent travellers that syncs friends’ travel calendars by city. Not on the itinerary? “I avoid clubs! I prefer little jazz bars.”

BLACK BOOK: NEW YORK

Jet-lag lifesaver “The best way to decompress after travelling is the Roman-style baths at Aire in Tribeca. They save my mangled body!”

Night out “The best cocktail in NYC is the bourbon-and-rum-based Start Me Up at the NoMad Hotel.”

Favourite resto to take out-of-towners to “La Esquina has great Mexican food. It’s underground, so it has a speakeasy vibe.”

Best place to see Mick Jagger “I had a gig in Deauville, France, last year, and he showed up and danced until 2 a.m.”

Top airports “The Cathay Pacific lounge in Hong Kong is incredible, Heathrow has the best shopping and I love Vancouver because there’s a big piece of my father’s [Todd Merrell] art in the arrivals area.”

Best scene “The Hôtel Costes in Paris sets the bar for sexy. You can always find interesting strangers to have a conversation with.”

DJ Alex Merrell's travel must-haves

Travel must-have: On-the-go fragrance

"Jo Malone travel size Pomegranate Noir Cologne is in my purse at all times and will get past the strictest of liquids rules (Heathrow)." Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir cologne ($60), at jomalone.com. READ MORE: How to travel like a beauty guru

DJ Alex Merrell's travel must-haves

Travel must-have: Dry shampoo

"Klorane dry shampoo is a lifesaver for an early flight after a late night." Kloreane Oil-Supressing dry shampoo ($18) at salons and mass-market retailers. READ MORE: 7 things you need to sleep on a plane

Celebrity

Rihanna is over people creating a competition between her and Beyoncé

The Rihanna Navy and the Beyhive have been on not-so-friendly terms on social media following the announcement of the 2017 Grammy Awards nominations.

Although RiRi expressed gratitude for her whopping eight nods, the Navy felt that she was snubbed after Anti didn't receive a nom for Album of the Year over Beyoncé's Lemonade. Naturally, Bey's fans wasted no time in coming to the defence of their Queen.

But Rihanna quickly cleared things up on the 'gram, commenting on a fan's photo, "I'm petty af, yes. But this is just unnecessary! I wish y'all would drop this topic and see things from the bigger picture! We don't need to be putting black women against each other! We deserve to be celebrated and the Grammy Academy agrees!"

Celebrity

Gigi Hadid is going on a social media cleanse

Celebrity

Gigi Hadid is going on a social media cleanse

Gigi Hadid and Instagram are about to go on a break. The model recently revealed she'd be taking some time off from the social-media site after the holidays.

"I'm taking a month off, actually, during New Years. I'm not deleting my account, I'm just taking the apps off my phone," she told ELLE US of her social-media hiatus. "It's empowering, not just for people in the spotlight, for everyone. At the end of the day I'm choosing what I'm showing you. A lot of the world feels so entitled to other peoples' lives, which is so crazy. I'm going to take a break when I feel like it, and when I come back and share it with you, if you want to be supportive and still follow me, that's great. But, if you're going to be upset that I need to be human for a month, than maybe I don't want your follow anyway."

While we'll miss her killer feed – which includes her slaying the Victoria's Secret runway, arm in arm with beau Zayn Malik (see below), and #ootds in some of the coolest athleisure we've ever seen, we get it.

Gigi is not the only star to take a break from the 'gram this year. Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez also chose to detox from the app. "It has gotten to the point that people won't even say hi to me or recognize me as a human," Bieber wrote on Instagram before deleting his account, "I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity."

The trailer for the new Baywatch movie is here

Movies & TV

The trailer for the new Baywatch movie is here

You know what your Thursday needs? This teaser trailer for the Baywatch reboot, that's what.

Now, we could extoll the virtues of this clip—The Rock! Zac Efron's abs! The Rock and Zac Efron's abs on a moped together!—but that would deprive you of the joy of experiencing this surprisingly funny clip with fresh eyes yourself.

Trends

Meet our January 2017 cover girl: Canadian model Crista Cober

Canadian model (and star of our January fashion story) Crista Cober has been working in the industry for 12 years, but she’s still wrapping her head around the public’s desire to know about her inner life. “I’m a professional model, so I think, wait, ‘you also want to know about me?” explains the Wellesley, Ont. native over the phone, having just returned from a lookbook shot in Milan.

Lucky for us, Toronto-based Cober offers a glimpse at her day-to-day on her largely unfiltered, just-as-I-am Instagram feed, where the model’s nine-month old daughter Lou makes the odd (adorable) appearance. Over the course of our chat, Cober opened up about motherhood, rebellion and yes, modelling.

Tell me about your day shooting for the cover of ELLE Canada's January issue.

“It was the quintessential Canadian vibe—a true collaboration. The location [Crown Flora Studio] was beautiful; it was like breathing in the tropics. I shot with [the photographer] Max Abadian 12 years ago. It was my very first shoot. So that was a very special moment. And I got to have my daughter on set.”

“Yes. I’m less inclined to say yes to some amazing projects. It’s much harder; I used to go from one job to the next, to the next. And now I have to be a lot more selective.”

Other than your schedule, what factors make you say yes?

“The people. I value my time, and to be away from someone I think is the greatest person on the planet, I want to make sure that I’m working with the right people. After 12 years, I have a better judge of things,”

How else have you evolved as a model in 12 years?

“I feel like I can collaborate a bit more with the people running the ship. I can be a bit more involved. I think now there’s a bit more of an interest in who I am as a person, rather than just what I look like. I’m not sure I like that yet.”

So how do you feel about that? It sounds like it plays into today’s phenomenon of the Insta-model.

“I’m in my 30s now, so I feel like I kind of skipped it. I like to use Instagram to post the pictures of what I want to show, as opposed to letting it have anything to do with work. Once I did a fragrance shoot, I understood that ‘now you’re the face!’ There was a lot of PR, a lot of hype. I had a moment of feeling like I wanted to keep my business and my life separate.

Would you say you’re shy?

“I had an amazing agent when I started in Toronto. I learned that this is a business and you’re self-employed. At the end of the day, you run you. There are a lot of beautiful faces out there, but there are less kind people. I approached going into my agency as my biggest casting. I wouldn’t say I’m shy, but I’m professional.”

Do you feel like this isn’t what you singed up for when you started?

“I was lucky to be able to stop modelling and come back. When I first started skateboarding, everyone thought that was really cool and wanted to incorporate it [into shoots]. And I was like, ‘this is just my mode of transportation because my bike got stolen! ‘I’m not a skater!”

Do you still skateboard?

“Yeah. Everywhere.”

What’s your advice to young models?

“Just love yourself so much for you! The business is always changing; something that doesn’t fit one day will fit another day.”

How did you start modelling?

“I was scouted by an incredible model scout, Anthony Gordon. He was an amazing ballet dancer and he had an eye for faces. He wasn’t a scout at the time, but we went to the same high school, 10 years apart. He found my picture in a yearbook. 5 days later he bumped into me at a shopping mall and when I told him my name, he said, ‘you will not believe this!’ and told me the story and took me to Elmer Olsen. Then I did my first editorial and that was the start."

Was there a point when you thought to yourself “wow, I’m a model. This is my career now.”

“No, I think that took a couple of years. I remember [the agency] showing me Daria on the cover of Vogue and explaining that that was my potential, then I went straight to New York, and from there to Paris.”

What made you stop modelling for a while?

“I came from an athletic background and I was a swimmer. The agency in Paris sent me back immediately because they said I was too big. I came back to Canada, and I thought, ‘this is my body.’ It was the size of my hands and my wrists [that they talked about].”

How did it feel to hear that?

“It made me stronger, more rebellious. But it gave me the opportunity to stop, and start again. When I was 21 I stopped for four months and I went to South America.”

Do you have any hopes or goals for your career?

“An amazing beauty contract or something that sets up 6o days of the year. Before I didn’t want to know what was coming up the next month. Now I love the idea of having more of a set schedule.”

So what does life look like right now?

“For now, I’m just enjoying. My daughter travels so well, and my husband works from home. So on the days we have nothing, we’re just exploring Toronto.”